Check back often for news and commentary about Kentucky by David Adams.
Contact via email: kyprogress(at)yahoo.com or Lexington area telephone 537-5372.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

We aren't solving the pension crisis

We have been down this road before. Every time the projected growth of a government program is trimmed even the slightest amount, the "stakeholders" clinging to that government program scream bloody murder that people will die in the streets because of the cut.

The same thing is happening in reverse with Kentucky's public employee fringe benefits crisis, now $27 billion in an ever-deepening hole.

House Dems are talking now in terms of "saving" $500 million a year and "fully funding" the programs by 2025.

Don't be fooled. All they have agreed to do is "cut" the growth rate of the $27 billion hole that needs so desperately to be filled up. They aren't really cutting anything or saving anything, unless you really want to get excited about the possibility that in a few years things won't be quite as horrible as they will be if we do absolutely nothing.

The teachers union giving their stamp of approval to this agreement should have been a dead giveaway.